Lowndes OL Dyshon Sims committed to Georgia at Dawg Night yesterday. Evidently ‘Bama finished a close second. Sims pointed to one factor that tipped the scales in Mark Richt’s favor:

“I also like how you get a four-year scholarship at Georgia. That’s one of the main reasons I picked it. From my understanding, you get three years at Alabama, and you only get a scholarship for each year. If you don’t show enough progression, then your scholarship is pretty much gone at Alabama.”

Hmmm… wonder who told him that? And how often do you suppose that’s getting repeated to recruits these days?

In any event, Sims cancelled his visit to Alabama planned for today, so I guess Saban will have to explain the facts of life to him by cell phone.

I love that we are no longer surrendering Valdosta to other schools. That’s probably the best change in recruiting approach since CTG arrived on campus. Rome, MM, JHC, Aulden Bynum, and now Sims. Not bad.

Yep, used to be FSU’s prime territory and So Ga still is. The inroads have been substantial and with a kid from Albany also trying to make it on this team there certainly is progress down here. The more So Ga recruits, the better. Remember when Murphy High had only one or two big opponents and they both were in So Ga. The Atlanta area and all of So Ga comprise some big players on a lot of big teams, CFB or NFL.

This quote immediately caught my eye as well. I have been saying for a while that if we are going to treat the schollies like we do, we should play that up on the recruiting trail. However, I think most of these kids think they are the second coming, so they probably believe that they would never be one of the ones to get cut. Glad to see us snag the top OL in the state for a change. More beef please.

FWIW… Imma not a fan of Carvell but he’s had several very good interviews the last few weeks where he asked the questions the services won’t(for fear of losing their inside info). I bash him when I think he sucks, so I gotta give him credit here… 🙂

I read where Sims is a pretty smart kid, and his comments reflect a grasp of the bigger picture. Gotta like the quality of kids we’re bringing in. Seems like our recruiting has moved to a new level over the past 18 months or so. I know a lot of fans will be complaining about our ‘haul’ on signing day evening, but this nearly-full class looks pretty impressive – and we haven’t even begun (formal) summer practices.

Agreed. What I liked most of all was picking up a couple of players that the recruiter services missed. Sure blows the star system away when you take NR players and I love it. It means our staff came up with good ratings for these players when they saw them first-hand. Watch the stars change during this HS season now that they have been selected.

Not sure this dismisses that argument BD. The maturity level varies greatly for HS seniors, as does the quality of advisors many of them have. Sims certainly seems grounded but we are sure to hear comments before February about how great the food was and how many steaks they had on a visit, or how the students chanted their name at a basketball game. For every recruit like Sims who worked through the process and made his decision for well-thought out reasons, there will be several who simply get flim-flammed by well run hype machines.

I don’t care much for the recruiting process as it stands today, and find it excessively draining for player and coaches, and unnecessarily expensive. Limiting the official visits, most of the camps, and having an early signing period would be some of the major changes I would like to see. Making a scholarship offer binding for 4 years is another rule I would like to see standardized. Why should the NCAA tightly control the number of scholarships but not their duration/value?

I’ll be honest, I’ve never heard of this kid before this post and I don’t follow Alabama’s recruiting except from about 30,000 feet. This fawning over high school kids kinda gives me the creeps.

So…I don’t know if his decision is well thought out or not. It’s his home state school and he has family there, so that kinda makes sense to me. Given his ranking, i’m guessing he could go wherever he wanted to. Kudos to him (and I mean that).

My post above was kind of tongue in cheek. If Richt and Friend fed him the three year line, that sounds a bit like negative recruiting (but still in fair territory) and if Saban told him then he should have considered himself warned. Either way is good by me.

Regarding a binding four year scholarship…why mandate it? Schools can give them out now if they like. To me, that sounds like a recruiting advantage for Richt. Why give it away?

On the other hand, I’m totally fine with Saban giving one year non-renewable deals. Some players will like the challenge in one place and some the other.

I wouldn’t be so sure that Richt gave him a binding 4 year scholarship (Senator did a post that very few schools in the country offered these last year). What I think was told/explain to the kids is the fact that at UGA you’ve almost certainly got a scholly 4 years if you work hard (injury included). I think it’s well known/seen that that isn’t necessarily the case in Bama.

Quote Of The Day

“Give them credit, but I think everybody can see that Georgia’s going to be a force to be reckoned with. I’m very proud of this team and this university, and we’re not going anywhere.’ — Kirby Smart, AJ-C, 1/9/18